Kempinski Accra receives ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System certification

The five-star luxury hotel Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra launched a press conference to announce their ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System certification issued by Cyprus Certification Company late last year.

This will make it the only five-star luxury hotel in Ghana to have the ISO 22000 certification and the first Kempinski hotel in the Middle East and Africa Region.

The ISO International Standards gives world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. They are also instrumental in facilitating international trade. ISO 22000 requires building a Food Safety Management System.

This means having a documented system in place and fully implementing it throughout the facility to include: Effective Prerequisite Programs in place to ensure a clean sanitary environment, a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Plan developed to identify, prevent and eliminate food safety hazards, established documented food safety management system processes to manage food safety throughout the organization - from management and business planning aspects to day to day communication and operations affecting food safety.

In attendance were representatives from the Food and Drugs Authority Ghana, namely Mr. Kofi Essel – Head of Food and Industrial Support Services, Mr. Roderick Dadey Adjei – Acting Deputy Chief Executive Food Safety Division, and Mr. Seth Seaneke – Acting Deputy Executive, Drug Registration and Inspectorate Division, Dr Rami El Chidiac - ISO 22000 Consultant at ISO Liban Inc. as well as a Ghana Tourism Authority representative and members of the media.

Addressing the press, Anne Murungi, Senior Director of Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra, stated, ‘In our efforts to ensure the highest standards of food safety and quality for our guests, we have created an in-house team of dedicated food safety experts who are committed to ensuring health, hygiene and sustainability standards are always adhered to. Achieving this certification is great news to us, and we can assure our guests we operate under the highest standards of quality.’

Dr. Rami El Chidiac, ISO 22000 Consultant at ISO Liban Inc, commented that ‘Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City took a pioneering step towards achieving the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System in order to enhance Quality Assurance, taking into consideration a strategic venture with ISO Liban to maintain and improve the System by continual audit and training.’

To close the session, Mr Paul Fosu, Health, Hygiene and Sustainability Manager at Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra, added, ‘maintaining the standards set in place is of great importance to us, and we can ensure our guests they can expect an intense focus on quality and customer service.’

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 164 national standards bodies.

Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.